Deprecated: mysql_connect(): The mysql extension is deprecated and will be removed in the future: use mysqli or PDO instead in /home/theastro/public_html/include/vshare.php on line 7The Astronomersstephen

His first paper was rejected by a journal, while other scientists accused him and his colleagues of failing to grasp the basic principles of physics.
Despite the sleights Prof Higgs, at the time an 34-year-old physicist at Edinburgh University, was convinced his idea was right although he never envisaged being able to prove it.
Yesterday, 48 years on, his radical concept was finally proved correct by an international team of physicists at the Cern laboratory using a £6 billion piece of equipment designed to uncover the secrets of the Universe.
Announcing the latest results from the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, scientists from confirmed they had discovered a new particle bearing all the hallmarks of a Higgs Boson.
The Higgs Boson helps to explain how fundamental particles gain their mass - a property which allows them to bind together and form stars and planets rather than whizzing around the universe at the speed of light.
Prof Higgs, 83, who travelled to Switerland to witness the landmark announcement first-hand, was visibly moved as the presentation was rounded off to tumultuous applause from a wildly excited audience, some of whom had waited overnight to secure their seats.
Choking back tears, he said: "I would like to add my congratulations to everyone involved in this achievement. It's really an incredible thing that it's happened in my lifetime."
His response was characteristically modest. Professor Higgs has repeatedly resisted requests for interviews and comments, insisting the limelight should be taken by the scientists who have proved that his theory is correct.
He has long been uncomfortable even having his name attached to the particle, which is the key missing cornerstone of the Standard Model of physics.
The son of a BBC sound engineer from Newcastle, he was raised in Bristol and excelled at Cotham Grammar School.
During a school assembly he saw the name of a former pupil, the great quantum physicist P.A.M. Dirac, on an honours board and decided to read about his work. He was quickly hooked, reading as much as he could find about the subject to satisfy his curiosity.
He went on to King's College, London, where he graduated with a first class honours in 1950. He was denied a lectureship at the university, however, so became a researcher at Edinburgh University.
His "eureka" moment reportedly came in a flash of inspiration while on a walking trip to the Cairngorms. When one of his initial papers was rejected, he insisted the journal had clearly not understood him.
Upon publication in 1964, he and his colleagues were ridiculed as young pretenders and urged to abandon their research or risk "professional suicide".
Prof Gerry Guralnik, an American researcher who published a paper on the same subject with colleagues Tom Kibble and Dick Hagen within months of Higgs, recalled a galling encounter with Werner Heisenberg, the esteemed German physicist who gave his name to the famous "uncertainty principle" of quantum mechanics.
He said: "A lot of famous people told us that we were wrong. Heisenberg told me I did not understand the rules of physics, which is pretty scary if you are 26 and are worried about getting a job."
Yesterday, the scientific community was united in its praise for Prof Higgs, with some calling for him to be given a knighthood.
Prof Stephen Hawking said Prof Higgs deserved a Nobel Prize for his work, but admitted the discovery of the new particle had come at a cost.
He said: "I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn't be found. It seems I have just lost $100."
Q&A
What has been found?
Both of the Cern teams have announced the discovery of a new particle which is consistent with theories about the Higgs Boson. Although they haven't proven it is definitely a Higgs, there is little doubt in most experts' minds that the sought-after particle has indeed been unearthed at last.
What does it mean?
Finding the Higgs Boson proves the existence of the Higgs Field, a force which provides fundamental particles - the building blocks of the Universe - with their mass. Without mass they would simply zip around the cosmos at the speed of light and never form into stars and planets. It is also the last missing cornerstone of the Standard Model of Physics, which explains what the Universe is composed of.
Will it have any practical applications?
Immediately, no. The purpose of the research was simply to uncover one of the Universe's great mysteries and further our understanding of science. But experts firmly believe it will be of paramount importance in future research which could provide new breakthroughs.

A tremendous tornado whirling across the surface of the sun was captured by a NASA satellite recently an amazing wonder of the solar system that may be as big as the Earth itself.
The video was recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a sun-watching satellite that has transmitted a series of stunning photos of solar flares in recent months. The new video shows darker, cooler plasma shifting back and forth above the sun's surface over the span of nearly 30 hours stretching from Feb. 7 to Feb. 8. Video Credit Space.Com
Gigantic Solar Tornado Is 5 Times the Size of Earth http://alien-disclosure-group-tv.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gigantic-solar-tornado-is-5-times-the-size-of-earth
ADG Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alien-Disclosure-Group/189249627773146
Follow ADG on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ADG_UK

Excerpts from Stephen Hawking's commentary in _On the Shoulders of Giants_ ISBN 9780762413485
The elderly priest was hesitant to divulge his theory, lest it provoke church authorities to any angry response, and so he withheld his work from all but a few astronomers. Compernicus' landmark De Revolutionibus was published while he was on his deathbed, in 1543. He did not live long enough to witness the chaos his heliocentric theory would cause.
In March of 1513, Copernicus purchased 800 building stones, and a barrel of lime from his chapter so that he could build an observation tower. There, he made use of astronomical instruments such as quadrants, parallactics and astrolabes to observe the sun, moon and stars. The following year, he wrote a brief Commentary on the Theories of the Motions of the Heavenly Objects from Their Arrangements (De hypothesibus motuum coelestium a se constitutis commentariolus), but he refused to publish the manuscript and only discreetly circulated it among his most trusted friends. The Commentary was a first attempt to propound an astronomical theory that the earth moves and the sun remains at rest. ... "We revolve around the Sun," he concluded in Commentary, "like any other planet.
Still, Copernicus feared exposing himself to the contempt of the populace and the church, and he spent years working privately to amend and expand the Commentary The result was On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium) which he completed in 1530, but withheld from publication for thirteen years. The risk of the church's condemnation was not, however, the only reason for Copernicus' hesitancy to publish. Copernicus was a perfectionist and consider his observations in constant need of verification and revision. He continued to lecture on these principles of his planetary theory, even appearing before Pope Clement VII, who approved of his work. In 1536, Clement formally requested that Copernicus publish his theories. But it took a former pupil, 25-year-old Georg Joachim Rheticus of Germany, who relinquished his chair in mathematics in Wittenberg so that he could study under Copernicus, to persuade his master to publish On the Revolutions. In 1540, Rheticus assisted in the editing of the work and presented the manuscript to a Lutheran printed in Nuremberg, ultimately giving birth to the Copernican Revolution.
When On the Revolutions appeared in 1543, it was attacked by Protestant theologians who held the premise of a heliocentric universe to be unbiblical. Copernicus' theories, they reasoned, might lead people to believe that they are simply part of a natural order, and not the masters of nature, the center around which nature was ordered. Because of this clerical opposition, and perhaps also general incredulity at the prospect of a non-geocentric universe, between 1543 and 1600, fewer than a dozen scientists embraced Copernican theory. Still, Copernicus had done nothing to resolve the major problem facing any system in which the earth rotated on its axis (and revolved around the sun), namely, how it is that terrestrial bodies stay with the rotating Earth. The answer was proposed by Giordano Bruno, and Italian scientist and avowed Copernican, who suggested that space might have no boundaries and that the solar system might be one of many such systems in the universe. Bruno also expanded on some purely speculative areas of astronomy that Copernicus did not explore in On the Revolutions. In his writings and lectures, the Italian scientist held that there were infinite worlds in the universe with intelligent life, some perhaps with beings superior to humans. Such audacity brought Bruno to the attention of the Inquisition, which tried and condemned him for his heretical beliefs. He was burned at the stake in 1600.
By 1543, Copernicus became paralyzed on his right side, and weakened both physically and mentally. The man who was clearly a perfectionist had no choice but to surrender control of his manuscript, On the Revolutions, in the last stages of printing. He entrusted his student, George Rheticus with the manuscript, but when Rheticus was forced to leave Nuremberg, the manuscript fell into the hands of Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander. Osiander, hoping to appease advocates of the geocentric theory, made several alterations without Copernicus's knowledge and consent. Osiander placed the word "hypothesis" on the title page, deleted important passages and added his own sentences which diluted the impact and certainty of the work. Copernicus was said to have received a copy of the printed book in Frauenburg on his deathbed, unaware of Osiander's revisions.
The foreword, at first ascribed to Copernicus, is held to have been written by Andrew Osiander, a Lutheran theologian and friend of Copernicus, who saw the De Revolutionibus through the press.

http://Cosmology.com Nebula & Galaxies: A Cosmic Journey Through the Universe. A documentary film by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D. http://BrainMind.com
The music in order of play: "Flight of the Valkries" by Wagner. "William Tell Overture" by Rossini. Beethoven. "Poet & Peasant Overture" by von Suppe.

Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFjwXe-pXvM&feature=PlayList&p=74184384669CEADB&index=0&playnext=1
Stephen Hawking gives a lecture on the Hawking-Hartle no boundary universe.
Lecture given to a sold out crowd at the Berkeley on March 13 2007.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/universes/html/bound.html

Despite being almost completely paralyzed by ALS, Hawking
remains one of the world's foremost theoretical physicists and has contributed greatly to our understanding of the universe.
The full interview airs Friday , March 7, 2008.

"Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe" (2008)
Part 1: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YxxbXgo7IVw
Part 2: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ShC9VBQCs
Part 3: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=To1rQNk08jo
Part 4: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3gox8PpNOPY
Part 5: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=U8kmY6yvG4o
Part 6: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=puXIw_bEqmU
Part 7: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7zxBdm1bNGw
Part 8: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iejh5fgcvyc
Part 9: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hLSu3dCpYr8
Part 10: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MT5vR5Xm5eA
Runtime: 01:36:20
Stephen Hawking is the most famous scientist on the planet. In his post as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, he counts Sir Isaac Newton (1642--1727) amongst his predecessors. And he was born 300 years to the day after the avant-garde astronomer, Galileo Galilei (1564--1642).
Following a devastating diagnosis of motor neurone disease in 1963, Hawking was given two years to live. Yet 44 years later, he still hopes to solve the big problem of physics, that of unifying quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity. Doing so will produce a set of laws that will explain everything in the universe, including how it all began - a breakthrough aptly dubbed the 'Theory of Everything'.
Hawking felt that he was on the brink of this breakthrough a long time ago. When he published his surprising best-seller 'A Brief History of Time' in 1988, he expressed a certainty that the Theory of Everything was imminent. However, twenty years later, it still eludes Hawking and the scientific community.
Frustratingly, Hawking's condition is worsening. His only way of communicating now is through one cheek muscle. Will he find the theory before it is too late?
This two-episode documentary from the UK's Channel 4 is both a portrait of Hawking and an attempt to explain his work to non-scientific types. It conveys the basics of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity in an easy-to-understand manner and does very well to acquaint viewers with Hawking's extraordinary life and character. A thoroughly enjoyable, inspiring and enlightening series!

http://www.ted.com In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? -- and discusses how we might go about answering them.

ZERO-G(TM) and its sponsors, Space Florida and The Sharper Image, flew world-renowned physicist and cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking into weightlessness today, performing eight parabolas, out of the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Central Florida. It was the first time Professor Hawking, the world's leading expert on gravity, had a zero-gravity experience.

My own musical tribute to two great men of science. Carl Sagan and his cosmologist companion Stephen Hawking present: A Glorious Dawn - Cosmos remixed. Almost all samples and footage taken from Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Stephen Hawking's Universe series.
RIP Dr. Sagan, you will be missed!!
Please, click HQ to watch in better quality.
Go here to download the track:
http://www.symphonyofscience.com
And here for another scientist remix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk
And my website for more original music:
http://www.colorpulsemusic.com/
Enjoy!!
-John
boswelj3@gmail.com
Lyrics:
[Sagan]
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch
You must first invent the universe
Space is filled with a network of wormholes
You might emerge somewhere else in space
Some when-else in time
The sky calls to us
If we do not destroy ourselves
We will one day venture to the stars
A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way
The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths
Of exquisite interrelationships
Of the awesome machinery of nature
I believe our future depends powerfully
On how well we understand this cosmos
In which we float like a mote of dust
In the morning sky
But the brain does much more than just recollect
It inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes
it generates abstractions
The simplest thought like the concept of the number one
Has an elaborate logical underpinning
The brain has its own language
For testing the structure and consistency of the world
[Hawking]
For thousands of years
People have wondered about the universe
Did it stretch out forever
Or was there a limit
From the big bang to black holes
From dark matter to a possible big crunch
Our image of the universe today
Is full of strange sounding ideas
[Sagan}
How lucky we are to live in this time
The first moment in human history
When we are in fact visiting other worlds
The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean
Recently we've waded a little way out
And the water seems inviting
---------------------------------------
Watch Cosmos for free on Hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/cosmos
Carl Sagan's Mii Character #(for Wii):
6774-1898-8986

Note: I edited this video, here is the full 10mins.
Stephen Hawking: Asking big questions about the universe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjBIsp8mS-c
http://www.ted.com In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? -- and discusses how we might go about answering them.
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector
"Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring--not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive... If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds."
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
"We need the stars... We need purpose! We need the image the Destiny [to take root among the stars] gives us of ourselves as a purposeful, growing species. We need to become the adult species that the Destiny can help us become! If we're to be anything other than smooth dinosaurs who evolve, specialize and die, we need the stars.... When we have no difficult, long-term purpose to strive toward, we fight each other. We destroy ourselves. We have these chaotic, apocalyptic periods of murderous craziness."
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents, 1998
"I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars."
Stephen Hawking, interview with Daily Telegraph, 2001
"The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!"
Larry Niven, quoted by Arthur Clarke in interview
at space.com, 2001
"In time, [a Martian] colony would grow to the point of being self- sustaining. When this stage was reached, humanity would have a precious insurance policy against catastrophe at home. During the next millennium there is a significant chance that civilization on Earth will be destroyed by an asteroid, a killer plague or a global war. A Martian colony could keep the flame of civilization and culture alive until Earth could be reverse- colonized from Mars."
Paul Davies, The New York Times, 2004
"We must turn our guns away from each other and outwards, to defend the Earth, creating a global and in space network of sensors and telescopes to find asteroids that could destroy our planet and create the systems to stop them. It makes no sense to dream great dreams while waiting to be hit by a train." Buzz Aldrin and Rick Tumlinson, Ad Astra Online, 2006

Prof Stephen Hawking speech to Campus Party 2006
Hawking's principal fields of research are theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. In 1971, in collaboration with Sir Roger Penrose, he proved the first of many singularity theorems; such theorems provide a set of sufficient conditions for the existence of a singularity in space-time. This work showed that, far from being mathematical curiosities which appear only in special cases, singularities are a fairly generic feature of general relativity.
Hawking also suggested that, after the Big Bang, primordial or mini black holes were formed. With Bardeen and Carter, he proposed the four Laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy with thermodynamics. In 1974, he calculated that black holes should thermally create and emit subatomic particles, known as Hawking radiation, until they exhaust their energy and evaporate.
In collaboration with Jim Hartle, Hawking developed a model in which the Universe had no boundary in space-time, replacing the initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models with a region akin to the North pole; while one cannot travel North of the North pole, there is no boundary there. While originally the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed Universe, discussions with Neil Turok led to the realization that the no-boundary proposal is consistent with a Universe which is not closed also.

Stephen Hawking gives a lecture on the Hawking-Hartle no boundary universe.
Lecture given to a sold out crowd at the Berkeley on March 13 2007.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/universes/html/bound.html

http://www.FreeScienceLectures.com
ZERO-G(TM) and its sponsors, Space Florida and The Sharper Image, flew world-renowned physicist and cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking into weightlessness today, performing eight parabolas, out of the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Central Florida.
It was the first time Professor Hawking, the world's leading expert on gravity, had a zero-gravity experience.
After the flight Stephen Hawking had to say the following:
"The zero-g (0g) part was wonderful and the high-g part was no problem. I could had gone on and on. Space here I come!"
---
It's Never too Late to Study:
http://www.FreeScienceLectures.com
---
Notice: This video is copyright by its respectful owners.
The website address on the video does not mean anything.
---